New B&G Zeus3 9 Inch installed on my Passport 40 and used last weekend. Guys, it's sweet, fast, and bright. Screen resolution was excellent. The addition of a 4-direction button below the wheel gives full control of the unit without needing to touch the screen if you want to run that way.

I'm still testing other systems, but this seems like just the system I wanted. So far, so good.

I have a dumb question regarding maps. If you have two MFM's, one at the helm and one at the Nav station do you have to buy two sets of maps? I was unsure if you only need one loaded and could access it from the other MFM.

New B&G Zeus3 9 Inch installed on my Passport 40 and used last weekend. Guys, it's sweet, fast, and bright. Screen resolution was excellent. The addition of a 4-direction button below the wheel gives full control of the unit without needing to touch the screen if you want to run that way.

I'm still testing other systems, but this seems like just the system I wanted. So far, so good.

Lets hope it stays that way.. My Zeus2 was just like that when I first got it.. Now I HATE the thing. Its so slow and choppy with a CMAP card that its almost unusable. I have gone back to using OpenCPN on my laptop to ensure I don't wreck my boat in tight quarters.

The worst thing.. They had a few software updates that seem to fix the slow problem. Then the next update reintroduced it. Seems like the programming team needs some serious work.

Anyway, this thread is about the Zeus3 so I will stop.. I just hope I'm not reading similar stories in the coming months/years.

I have a dumb question regarding maps. If you have two MFM's, one at the helm and one at the Nav station do you have to buy two sets of maps? I was unsure if you only need one loaded and could access it from the other MFM.

Short answer is yes. I have a B&G Zeus2 and a Lowrance HDS Gen2 and they can share charts, waypoints, and routes. But the C-Mapcharts have two activations, so you can load them locally on both devices anyway. Local is better for speed and redundancy.

Lets hope it stays that way.. My Zeus2 was just like that when I first got it.. Now I HATE the thing. Its so slow and choppy with a CMAP card that its almost unusable. I have gone back to using OpenCPN on my laptop to ensure I don't wreck my boat in tight quarters.

The worst thing.. They had a few software updates that seem to fix the slow problem. Then the next update reintroduced it. Seems like the programming team needs some serious work.

Anyway, this thread is about the Zeus3 so I will stop.. I just hope I'm not reading similar stories in the coming months/years.

Is your software up to date? There was an update about a year ago that had big performance improvements. My Zeus2 works fine with the Caribbean charts.

Is your software up to date? There was an update about a year ago that had big performance improvements. My Zeus2 works fine with the Caribbean charts.

Generally agree about the programming team.

Yup.. I just updated it a week ago..

I have the Carribean C-map charts (with Active Captain data) and its so slow its almost unusable. Seriously turning the dial to zoom in and out has a 5-8 second delay. Scrolling is about 5 seconds. I have noticed it gets even slower with lots of AIS data. Its very frusterating..

I have the Carribean C-map charts (with Active Captain data) and its so slow its almost unusable. Seriously turning the dial to zoom in and out has a 5-8 second delay. Scrolling is about 5 seconds. I have noticed it gets even slower with lots of AIS data. Its very frusterating..

that sounds heinous. was seriously about to pull the trigger on one of the defender advertised remanufactured 9" units before finding this thread. now I don't know what to do.

Since my post I have decided to eyeball my setup and see if there is something wrong with my install (usually %90 of problems).. So I have now simplified my network and will do my next trip with things simplified to see if I can isolate an install issue. Unfortuantley I won't move for a few weeks.. and I will come back and post if I could fix it.

However.. I still stand by the fact that the programing teams suck at B&G. Just 2 weeks ago I had to e-mail them and let them know that thier website was broken and users could no longer download updates. It took 4 e-mails with the them to convince them the website was actually broken.

Not to mention the whole craziness with the Gofree shop about 4 months ago. I was left without charts or updates for months. Although they shipped me a brand new card since the download didn't work, it wasn't the best solution. Even now, I spent $30 on the insight planner and its no longer supported.

This is just conjecture.. but I'm pretty sure they are trying to move thier programing offshore and doing a VERY bad job of it.. Even VERY bad doesn't describe how bad (heads need to roll and people need to be fired). Unfotunately I don't think that team will get better for 4-6 months.

The Triton2 stuff I have is fantastic.. The Zeus stuff I have is "NOT FANTASTIC"!

I have the Carribean C-map charts (with Active Captain data) and its so slow its almost unusable. Seriously turning the dial to zoom in and out has a 5-8 second delay. Scrolling is about 5 seconds. I have noticed it gets even slower with lots of AIS data. Its very frusterating..

That may be the difference. I have Caribbean C-MAP without Active Captain data. You should be using a Class 10 SD card.

Edit: If your problem is related to Active Captain, I wonder if you can turn it off.